Expecting an unashamed Italian rip-off of a Hollywood box office success to turn out into something remotely as good as its original source is like being born a millionaire (i.e. only one in a million {sic}) and this belated eroticized EXORCIST-clone is no exception to the rule. Still, being aware of its notoriety for a couple of years (via "Stracult", an essential tome on Euro-Cult I picked up at the 2004 Venice Film Festival), I was rather looking forward to Severin's recently released DVD. However, the first online reviews I came across were far from encouraging...
As it turned out, I found MALABIMBA not to be as bad as I was being led to believe and certainly deserving of its ungodly reputation for sleazy exploitation. In fact, I chose to watch the lengthier "Integral Version" of the film (which adds some 10 minutes of horrendously preserved expository footage not too dissimilar in quality, in fact, to the R2 disc of WITCHFINDER GENERAL [1968]) and it's an enjoyably trashy ride. There's nudity galore and unlimited camp value (and, consequently, unintentional hilarity) as in the opening séance (with a man's zipper being undone by itself and a big-breasted woman going suddenly topless!) and Bimba's penchant (while possessed by her black sheep of an ancestor's evil spirit) for humping her teddy-bears!! The over-the-top dialogue, then, gives the whole a faux-sophisticated air which raises it slightly above its tawdry origins.
As opposed to other Italian variants on THE EXORCIST (1973) I've watched like Alberto De Martino's interesting THE ANTICHRIST (1974) and Mario Bava's wretched THE HOUSE OF EXORCISM (1975) the film under review is (as was to be expected) more often sleazy than scary, thus also inviting comparison to contemporaneous Italian films of the "naughty teen" variety like Fernando Di Leo's LA SEDUZIONE (1973) and PECCATI IN FAMIGLIA (1975). Which brings us to the hardcore inserts; the film's numerous sex scenes are lengthy and flatly shot which, frankly, stop the narrative dead in its tracks (much like what happens in Jess Franco's movies). Still, director Andrea Bianchi may not even be in the league of a Franco (and certainly not Walerian Borowczyk) but his camera is, during the quieter moments, admirably mobile with the great location of the old castle enriching the film's interesting depiction of a decaying aristocracy; the score with its accompanying spooky ghost sighs during the possession sequences is also quite notable.
Luscious short-cropped redhead Katell Laennec (whose only film this proved to be!) looks like a more sensual version of a young Shirley MacLaine; she is quite good in the role but should perhaps have tried to vary her range a little more in conveying possession than by just narrowing her eyes. Mariangela Giordano (who would go on to reprise the role of the nun in the 1982 remake; see below) is decent enough but the fact that Patrizia Webley is even more of an irrepressible nymphomaniac than her possessed niece in the first place, rather defeats the purpose of the whole enterprise!
As it turned out, I found MALABIMBA not to be as bad as I was being led to believe and certainly deserving of its ungodly reputation for sleazy exploitation. In fact, I chose to watch the lengthier "Integral Version" of the film (which adds some 10 minutes of horrendously preserved expository footage not too dissimilar in quality, in fact, to the R2 disc of WITCHFINDER GENERAL [1968]) and it's an enjoyably trashy ride. There's nudity galore and unlimited camp value (and, consequently, unintentional hilarity) as in the opening séance (with a man's zipper being undone by itself and a big-breasted woman going suddenly topless!) and Bimba's penchant (while possessed by her black sheep of an ancestor's evil spirit) for humping her teddy-bears!! The over-the-top dialogue, then, gives the whole a faux-sophisticated air which raises it slightly above its tawdry origins.
As opposed to other Italian variants on THE EXORCIST (1973) I've watched like Alberto De Martino's interesting THE ANTICHRIST (1974) and Mario Bava's wretched THE HOUSE OF EXORCISM (1975) the film under review is (as was to be expected) more often sleazy than scary, thus also inviting comparison to contemporaneous Italian films of the "naughty teen" variety like Fernando Di Leo's LA SEDUZIONE (1973) and PECCATI IN FAMIGLIA (1975). Which brings us to the hardcore inserts; the film's numerous sex scenes are lengthy and flatly shot which, frankly, stop the narrative dead in its tracks (much like what happens in Jess Franco's movies). Still, director Andrea Bianchi may not even be in the league of a Franco (and certainly not Walerian Borowczyk) but his camera is, during the quieter moments, admirably mobile with the great location of the old castle enriching the film's interesting depiction of a decaying aristocracy; the score with its accompanying spooky ghost sighs during the possession sequences is also quite notable.
Luscious short-cropped redhead Katell Laennec (whose only film this proved to be!) looks like a more sensual version of a young Shirley MacLaine; she is quite good in the role but should perhaps have tried to vary her range a little more in conveying possession than by just narrowing her eyes. Mariangela Giordano (who would go on to reprise the role of the nun in the 1982 remake; see below) is decent enough but the fact that Patrizia Webley is even more of an irrepressible nymphomaniac than her possessed niece in the first place, rather defeats the purpose of the whole enterprise!